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Topic:
Leaving an Activity
This thread has 5 replies. Displaying all posts.
Post 1 made on Monday November 12, 2012 at 13:33
markandersonus
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
December 2007
94
Hi Guys

Just replacing a multi-room Harmony setup with MSC-400 and MX-780's. I can't seem to find an obvious way to turn off devices when leaving an activity. With the Harmonies, when you leave Watch Movie (by selecting "Watch TV, for example), it turns off the DVD/Blu-ray (unless setup to do otherwise).

A few days ago, I was stuck here:

If I press the Main button, go back to the main page, and then select Watch AppleTV, how do I know I came from Watch Blu-ray and that the Blu-ray should be turned off? I know I could check if Blu-ray is on and turn it off in the Watch AppleTV activity, but I'd have to repeat that in activity, which is a bit cumbersome.

After giving it some more thought, I think I have a solution:

I can create a variable to track the current (will actually be previous ) activity and then a "LeaveActivity" macro.

IF Act1 = TRUE
----Power off DevX
----Power off DevY
----SET Act1 = FALSE
ELSE
----IF Act2 = TRUE
--------Power off DevZ
--------SET Act2 = FALSE
----ELSE
--------...

So, if I am in Act1, the Act1 variable will be TRUE. When I go back to main and press Act3, it will call LeaveActivity macro (above), which will take care of powering off any device that is not needed and clearing its variable.

I would then Set Act3 = TRUE in the StartAct3 Macro

Going from Watching Blu-ray to listening to Sonos would do the following:

Set ActBD = FALSE
Power off Blu-ray
Power off TV
Power off AVR
Set ActSonos = TRUE

Anyone done anything like this?

Regards

Mark
Post 2 made on Monday November 12, 2012 at 14:42
Lowhz
Senior Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2012
1,168
That's way too much automation and logic. BD players, Apple TV and Sonos uses so little power when idling it would make no sense to try and automate all that power control.

If you turn the BD player off when the user navigates away from it you have to wait for the BD player to boot up if/when they navigate back to it. If someone wants to watch TV then turn on the TV, Cable box, Apple TV and BD player. That way if they bounce between sources they are already booted and running without having to wait for the device to power up and then accept macro commands. It speeds the entire system control up.

Good rule of thumb: Power the system down the way you want it to power up, ie if the cable box is on HDMI 1 on the TV then make sure when execute your system off macro it sends an HDMI 1 command to the TV so that it turns back on to that input and it's one less command in the power up macro when someone wants to watch TV.
OP | Post 3 made on Monday November 12, 2012 at 14:55
markandersonus
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
December 2007
94
On November 12, 2012 at 14:42, Lowhz said...
That's way too much automation and logic. BD players, Apple TV and Sonos uses so little power when idling it would make no sense to try and automate all that power control.

If you turn the BD player off when the user navigates away from it you have to wait for the BD player to boot up if/when they navigate back to it. If someone wants to watch TV then turn on the TV, Cable box, Apple TV and BD player. That way if they bounce between sources they are already booted and running without having to wait for the device to power up and then accept macro commands. It speeds the entire system control up.

Good rule of thumb: Power the system down the way you want it to power up, ie if the cable box is on HDMI 1 on the TV then make sure when execute your system off macro it sends an HDMI 1 command to the TV so that it turns back on to that input and it's one less command in the power up macro when someone wants to watch TV.

Thanks for Reply Lowhz.

Maybe leaving the BD on is OK

I always leave on AppleTV and WMC.

I need to do something for listening to Sonos though: don't want plasma and AVR left on, so I may as well implement something generic.

Thanks for the tip on the HDMI selection on power down.

How do you power down: soft button on main or press and hold on hard button?

Regards

Mark
Post 4 made on Monday November 12, 2012 at 15:09
Lowhz
Senior Member
Joined:
Posts:
April 2012
1,168
I have 2 power off processes: Press and hold 5 seconds for all system off or a power off button for each device on it's individual page.

Sometimes I'll create a "Device" called power commands which is just on and off commands for each device on soft keys.

The danger of over automating is that the MSC400 only has a single IR engine and when you try to manage power for every single activity it slows the entire operation down.
OP | Post 5 made on Tuesday November 13, 2012 at 06:27
markandersonus
Long Time Member
Joined:
Posts:
December 2007
94
On November 12, 2012 at 15:09, Lowhz said...
I have 2 power off processes: Press and hold 5 seconds for all system off or a power off button for each device on it's individual page.

Sometimes I'll create a "Device" called power commands which is just on and off commands for each device on soft keys.

The danger of over automating is that the MSC400 only has a single IR engine and when you try to manage power for every single activity it slows the entire operation down.

Thanks!
Post 6 made on Tuesday November 13, 2012 at 11:32
Duct Tape
Loyal Member
Joined:
Posts:
November 2008
5,295
i like to have the power off button take me to a power off menu.  that way if it is accidentally pressed, which happens often, you have an option to go back instead of inadvertently shutting down your system.
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